|
Featured Member |
McDonald’s Corp. MCD +0.66% is pushing Ronald McDonald back into the spotlight, using the clown mascot to comment on Twitter TWTR +0.34% and updating his outfits as the fast food giant tries to attract younger consumers.
McDonald’s
“Selfies ...here I come!” the company quoted Ronald McDonald as saying in its announcement on Wednesday. It said Ronald McDonald won’t get his own Twitter handle, but that McDonald’s will post comments attributed to him using the hashtag #RonaldMcDonald.
McDonald’s executives have admitted lately that the brand has lost relevance with consumers, particularly younger ones. Trotting out Ronald McDonald -- a 51-year-old icon that has spent the past several years largely sidelined from public view -- appears to be one of the company’s strategies for regaining that relevance.
“Customers today want to engage with brands in different ways and Ronald will continue to evolve to be modern and relevant,” Dean Barrett, a McDonald’s senior vice president, said.
Advocacy groups have criticized McDonald’s in years past by for using the clown to entice kids to eat at the fast food chain. In 2011, a corporate watchdog group collected more than 600 signatures from health-care professionals and organizations in an effort to get McDonald’s to ditch Ronald and to stop marketing to kids.
|